Statistics, in and of themselves make for boring conversation and dull reading. Yet they leap to volatile political life when used to make arguments about race and violence, sex and death – as the angry exchanges between President Thabo Mbeki,…
Earlier this year a local couple made the news when they applied for asylum in the United States claiming that they were persecuted in South Africa on the basis of their race. The couple argued that as whites they would…
In 2001 Anita Ferreira was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of her common-law partner Cyril Parkman. The court accepted that she has been severely and extensively abused, but did not find that his abuse was a mitigating factor….
In asserting that public access to government-held information was essential to accountable processes of democratic rule, a United States Judge, Louis Brandeis, once said: "Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the best policeman." Despite recognising…
After a prolonged delay the amendment to Section 49 of the Criminal Procedure Act, the law regulating the use of lethal force for arrest, was brought into operation on 18 July, almost 5 years after being passed by Parliament in…
Over the past months newspapers have frequently featured stories and disturbing front-page photos of violent vigilante attacks. The ongoing coverage of these acts has lent the impression that we are experiencing in South Africa a sudden increase in 'mob justice';…